ESPN is a much as a Wimbledon hallmark as strawberries and cream and the BBC

The broadcasting company is the second largest at SW19

(Getty)

For everyone watching Wimbledon in Britain and Ireland, the BBC’s familiar-soundtracked coverage is as much a staple of the fortnight as all-white uniforms, strawberries, cream, Pimms and rain disrupting a match as the crowd cheers on one of the favourites - but that’s also why it’s all the more interesting to see the competition from another perspective, and a perspective that is just as much of a staple now for those across the Atlantic and beyond.

That is made clear by the fact ESPN occupy the second biggest broadcasting compound in SW19, and is emphatically illustrated when The Independent is given a behind-the-scenes tour of a hugely impressive set-up.

The company have been covering Wimbledon for over a decade, but secured an exclusive $400m deal in 2011, and have since then only increasingly enhanced and improved coverage that is catered for an American audience - and is as much of a staple as the BBC is.

The sheer effort and how impressively seriously the coverage is taken is reflected by the fact ESPN take 40 people with them from their base in Connecticut, with that core then complemented by staff based in Europe as well as local production companies, so that the total team is close to 200. You realise it’s needed when you see the effort and breadth of what they’re doing.

This was an unusually sunny Wimbledon - although the Independent just happened to be there on the single Tuesday it rained - but very few of the ESPN workers will be coming away with tans. That’s because they spend most of the days in windowless rooms within the compound, the light coming from the many TV screens they work on to bring their audience everything from expert analysis packages requested at the early-morning conferences, highlights, key shots, computer graphics and of course the main-event action that is filmed on ESPN’s cameras.

That is something else that marks them out as unique, and a staple of this event. While most international broadcasters take their coverage from the BBC feed, ESPN have their own, so they can further tailor their coverage.

If many of the workers don’t get to see much of the sun, though, they still get a proper sense of the event; of the glamour; of the history. There is sporting royalty everywhere. In one studio, Andre Agassi is being interviewed, speaking with a zen-like calm. In another, Tim Henman is talking about Johanna Konta, as John McEnroe goes to the water fountain just outside.

This is the power of the event, this is the power of ESPN’s coverage.